In many communication service provider networks, it is advantageous to steer a subset of the overall subscriber traffic to value-added service (VAS) server devices that can process the traffic based upon a classification of the traffic. By way of example only, traffic associated with video type content can be steered through a VAS server device with a video optimizer application that can process or optimize the content prior to forwarding the content to requesting client devices.
Currently, in order to retrieve content, a client device can request that a Domain Name System (DNS) server device resolve a domain name and receive an Internet Protocol (IP) address in response. With the IP address, the client device can establish a connection with a server device and request the content. Upon the content being sent to the client device from the server device, the content and associated domain name can be classified (e.g., as video type content). Thereafter, requests for content associated with the domain name can be steered based on the classification.
However, this process is repeated for subsequent requests for content associated with the domain name from other client devices. Since the classification can only occur subsequent to retrieved content being classified, initial requests by the other client devices for the content associated with the domain name will not be steered, which is undesirable.